To examine the social and economic impacts of the next Grand Solar Minimum – See About

“Most people do NOT realize how short the Canadian growing season is and that the development of new early ripening wheat was a major discovery for Canadian agriculture, says reader Greg. “The snow is slowly melting in the Canadian Prairie, near Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. and planting is nearly a month behind already. Ever shortening seasons will wipe out Canadian wheat farming.

“Here is an eye opening article from deep in the wheat belt:”

How does an ice age start? With one snowflake

By Brian Zinchuk

April 17, 2013 – (Excerpts)

Moods were glum throughout Western Canada that spring. April showers were supposed to bring May flowers. Instead, all the precipitation would come as the “white stuff.” Regina kept reporting another centimetre every few days. Roofs started collapsing. Brendenbury lost the roof of its rink. Still, these things can happen any given year.

But by the May long weekend, people really began to worry. There was still snow on the ground. No farmer could plant a crop. Half-million dollar tractor-and-air seeder combinations sat idle…. While that was hard on the pocketbooks, it was worse for the stomach.

By July, three-year-old bales that were used for wind protection were fetching $200 a piece, if you could find them. By September, the beef herd had been culled by 75 per cent. There was no food, anywhere, to feed the cattle. After a brief time when stores couldn’t give away all the recently slaughtered beef, and pork, North America suddenly found itself on a vegan diet, deprived of most of its milk, too. After all, you couldn’t drink milk if you couldn’t feed the cows.

World grain prices quadrupled over four months with the realization that there would be no grain production from the Canadian West, and substantially less from the American plains.

Natural gas prices also shot up, well beyond their 2007 peaks. With people running their furnaces year round, stockpiles dried up and, by fall, drilling resumed in earnest.

“Climate change,” the people were told. “This is what happens when we drive gas-guzzling SUVs and burn coal. The world is getting warmer.”